Cowboy Shooters and cap&ball revolvers

rifle · October 28, 2007, 07:22:06 AM

I was wondering about how you Cowboy Shooters set your cap&ball revolvers up as far as mainspring tension. Is it the norm to lighten the main springs to be fast and draw the hammer more easily ....or.....is it the norm to leave the mainspring heavy as it comes from the box or even make the spring heavier by replacement of a new "heavy spring". Heavy springs helping to keep the flayed out ignited percussion caps from falling into the action of most type of cap&ballers. I'm not inquiring about cap guards or Treso nipples as a solution. I'm just wondering about mainspring tension in relation to cap&ball Cowboy Shooters. Thanks for your opinions(if I get any ha ha ha )

Major 2 · October 28, 2007, 07:46:12 AM

As they are .... I lighten a set once on a Colt Army discovered two issues , Nipples falling in the works & blow-back..
course that's is not scientific or even a fair test...

I own an original with a rather heavier main..compared to my 2 Gens... none of which have issues with nipple fragments "knock on wood"

I do own a USPFA Type I Richards with about the sweetest light main spring & action I ever handled, unknown to me if it came that way or was smith-ed ( I got it in a trade ) I suspect it would be to light for C&B

Dick Dastardly · October 28, 2007, 08:15:44 AM

If you load a Ruger Old Army to the max, it can and does shed pieces of primer cup. These pieces go wherever the hot gas takes them. On one extremely strong load I found that it even re-cocked the hammer. Had I held the trigger back it would have gone full auto. I did have some blood running from my forehead and some pitts on my glasses. I doubt that stronger hammer springs would have helped much. Certainly lighter ones would have exacerbated the problem.

So, there IS a limit to how strong a load can be even in the strongest revolvers.

My hammer springs are all stock. I now recommend using Ruger's loads from their manual, or less. With these loads they run flawlessly.

DD-DLoS

will52100 · October 28, 2007, 09:41:12 AM

I've shot only colt replica's in matches so far, eigther a set of 51 navies or a pair of walkers. The walkers I loaded to the max.

The walkers have a V shaped mainspring and it works well as is, never lightened them. The navies are still using stock springs. One thing about it, if you lighten the springs on a cap gun you run into a fragment jamming the action more often, and the posibility of not popping a cap from fouling slowing the hammer down. Unlike a cartrige gun you've got hot gas and fouling coming out the nipple and going down the hammer and channel. I haven't had a hammer foul to a stop yet, but after a lot of shooting I have noticed that slowed it down a mite. I'd leave as is, unless it's week, then I'd get a new one. I don't realy beleive heaver than stock is neccisary though.

hellgate · October 28, 2007, 01:00:17 PM

Other than my two Walkers, Dragoon, & a US Marshall (fine out of the box) I have lightened them all. In some I have gotten into trouble with cap jams or failure to fire and had to reshape the nipple faces (Butler Cr and SS replacement nipples) to create a smaller surface area to get reliable smack when I lightened them too much. The Treso and SS replacement nipples allow you to lighten the stock mainspring some because of the smaller flash holes. On my Uberti Remingtons all I had to do was back out the mainspring tension screw til I got the lightest pull that would not cause blowback with full (30gr FFFg+200gr conicals) loads. Some of my guns came stock with such heavy pulls that it was ridiculous. Sometimes just putting a leather washer between the frame and the spring did the job without modifying or replacing the original spring in Colts.

Noz · October 29, 2007, 01:43:19 PM

58 Remingtons and 60 Armys. Stock springs.

Sir Charles deMouton-Black · October 29, 2007, 02:14:17 PM

I had competition mainsprings from VTI for my Pietta New Army. They work for conversion cylinders.

For caps, I ended up putting the stock spring back in! Now I just leave them in.

Troublesome River · October 31, 2007, 10:39:58 AM

The 2 Pietta '51 Navys I bought a while back are having the whole action replaced. The gentleman I bought them from had not only lightened the mainsprings (cap fragment problems) but had shortend the hand so the cylinder timing was way off. stick with standard springs-Troublesome

Ransom Gaer · November 01, 2007, 02:04:41 PM

All of my cap and ball pistols have stock springs. I actually haven't even thought about lightening them any. I like them as is.

Ransom Gaer

rifle · November 01, 2007, 11:53:38 PM

I was just wondering how the stiff springs of some guns affect the "fast" shooting. Wouldn't it get difficult pulling back the stiff sprinfs after awhile? You Cowboy shooters have thumbs like the Green Hulk or Pop Eye?

I picked up a Belgian Colt that had a mainspring like the leaf spring from a 48 Ford pick-up. It didn't have much trouble with caps getting in the action or hanging it up. Just a minimum of caps hanging up hanging up on the frame just as the cylinder tried to turn. I ground the spring to be about 2/3rd's what it was and thought it may be too light but it has less trouble now. Almost the same but a little less. I ground the spring flat ways not the hour glass shape.
Some of the guns today come with really light springs out of the box. I think some of those should have the spring stiffened. Like put half a mainspring under the one the gun came with. One and a half springs. Treso nipples can't cure all the cap frag problems right?

Marshal Tac · November 02, 2007, 02:19:29 AM

I reduced the power of my Uberti '58 Remmies considerably and they work well with the C&B cylinders as well as the R&D conversions. I do not have problems with cap fragments, and the only time I have a failure to fire is when the cap completely falls of the nipple or I fail to seat it all the way down. These problems are me or the nipples, and not much to do with the springs.

Before I lightened them, these springs almost took two hands to pull that hammer back..... I guess the same gorilla that puts their screws in also checks hammer pull weights.......

Fingers McGee · November 02, 2007, 11:18:04 AM

I leave the stock springs in all my C&Bs. The only exception was a pair of Pietta 51 .44 cal Navy Marshall models that were reeeeeally stiff. I tried some lighter springs and the guns went to half cock with stock nipples and a 25 gr fffg Goex load. A pair of stock Uberti springs fixed the problem. I also have a pair of 51 navies that were heavier than I liked that have leather washers between the spring and grip frame to lighten them up a tad. All my shooting C&Bs have Tresso Nipples.